As the Knob Turns / High whimsy meets high style - and the finest quality - as Stancil Studios expands their interior design and custom finishes line to include cabinet-pulls of hand-turned wood and ivory

Penelope Rowlands

Published
4:00 am PST, Sunday, January 6, 2002

We reach for them, many times a day. Their presence is so humble that it borders on the invisible. And yet knobs, known in the genteel language of interior design as "cabinet pulls," routinely work wonders, opening up all sorts of things on our behalf. Who knew knobs could be glamorous?

Elisa Stancil, for one. Stancil's had a decorative painting practice in the city since the mid-1980s. Now, she and her son, James, have teamed up to form a new company, Stancil Studios. While creating custom finishes is still Elisa's main line of work - she's just completing a magnificent, hand-painted ceiling mural, inspired by an Italian design, among other projects - she's also now supplying cabinet pulls (as well as curtain hardware) to interior designers and other clients in the Bay Area and beyond.

With its deep green facade, Stancil Studios brings a jolt of color to a monochromatic South of Market alley. You could almost say that about Elisa herself, a high-energy craftsperson who buzzes around, looking chic, even when splattered in paint. Even her catalog is upbeat.

"We want to make your rooms sing!" it says, in a distinctly Stancilian voice. She introduces me to the 10 members of La Famille Ivoire, a whole constellation of knobs, each with a distinct personality.

There's Papa Stripe, the patriarch, an egg-shaped, hand-turned beauty that looks yellowish, like antique ivory, but is actually made of wood. (All Stancil's knobs are manufactured by Haas Woodworking, a San Francisco firm that's done custom wood and ivory turning since the 19th century.)

"Each says something different," she says of the knobs, which are available in a variety of woods and custom finishes. As she talks, she coats some with beeswax pomade to give them the patina of age.

"They're just pretty," she adds, pointing lovingly at Tatie Stripe - the aunt of the family - who's stately, good humored and encircled with rust- colored lines. "Look at that one, it just sings!" Stancil discovered the hidden world of knobs when she was working on various projects on the East Coast (for such famous interior designers as the late Mark Hampton) a while back.

Working in old houses, with old detailing, "gave me the sense that cabinet pulls could have something to say and not just be utilitarian," she says. Of her diminutive family - Mm Stripe, Papa Ind, Bb Nuit and the rest - she says: "I think they look like things that you would have brought home from somewhere."

But they're not just exotic souvenirs: They also work wonders for opening cabinets and drawers.